MOTHS OF THE LIMBERLOST 



with her feet, and from her shoulders depended her wings, 

 wet, and wrinkled as they had been cramped in the pupa 

 case. Even then she had expanded in body until it 

 seemed impossible that she had emerged from the open- 

 ing of the vacant cocoon. The second one had its front 

 feet and head out, and was struggling frantically to free 

 its shoulders. A fresh wet spot on the top of another 

 cocoon, where the moth had ejected the acid with which it 

 is provided to soften the spinning, was heaving with the 

 pushing head of the third. 



Molly-Cotton was in sympathy with the imprisoned 

 moths. 



"Why don't you get something sharp, and split the 

 cocoons so they can get out.'*" she demanded. "Just 

 look at them struggle ! They will kill themselves ! " 



Then I explained to her that if we wanted big, perfect 

 moths we must not touch them. That the evolution of 

 species was complete to the minutest detail. The prov- 

 idence that supplied the acid, required that the moths 

 make the fight necessary to emerge alone, in order to 

 strengthen them so they would be able to walk and cling 

 with their feet, while the wings drooped and dried prop- 

 erly. That if I cut a case, and took out a moth with no 

 effort on its part, it would be too weak to walk, or bear 

 its weight, and so would fall to the floor. Then because 

 of not being in the right position, the wings would harden 

 half spread, or have broken membranes and never de- 



253 



